IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v25y2016i5p323-336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Planned or Emergent Strategy Making? Exploring the Formation of Corporate Sustainability Strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Friederike Neugebauer
  • Frank Figge
  • Tobias Hahn

Abstract

In strategy research, there is a consensus that strategy making resides on a continuum from planned to emergent where most strategies are made in a mixed way. Different contingency factors have been suggested to explain the factors that influence strategy making. Sustainability research seems to overlook most of this development and assumes instead that sustainability strategies are made in a purely planned way. We contribute to a better understanding of the role of different strategy making modes for sustainability in three ways. First, we point to the bias towards planned strategy formation in sustainability research. Second, we propose a new contingency factor to help explain sustainability strategy making based on the nature of the problem addressed. Third, we discuss strategy making for different types of sustainability problems. We argue that planned strategy making is expected for salient and non‐wicked problems while emergent strategy making is likely for non‐salient and wicked problems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Suggested Citation

  • Friederike Neugebauer & Frank Figge & Tobias Hahn, 2016. "Planned or Emergent Strategy Making? Exploring the Formation of Corporate Sustainability Strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 323-336, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:25:y:2016:i:5:p:323-336
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1875
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1875
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.1875?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rotmans, J., 2005. "Societal Innovation: between dream and reality lies complexity," ERIM Inaugural Address Series Research in Management 7293, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam..
    2. Seung‐Kyu Rhee & Su‐Yol Lee, 2003. "Dynamic change of corporate environmental strategy: rhetoric and reality," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 175-190, May.
    3. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    4. Stern,Nicholas, 2007. "The Economics of Climate Change," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521700801, October.
    5. H. Igor Ansoff, 1987. "The emerging paradigm of strategic behavior," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(6), pages 501-515, November.
    6. Pia Lotila, 2010. "Corporate Responsiveness to Social Pressure: An Interaction-Based Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 395-409, July.
    7. Henry Mintzberg & James A. Waters, 1985. "Of strategies, deliberate and emergent," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(3), pages 257-272, July.
    8. Warren Keith Schilit & Frank T. Paine, 1987. "An Examination Of The Underlying Dynamics Of Strategic Decisions Subject To Upward Influence Activity," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 161-187, March.
    9. Said Elbanna & John Child, 2007. "The Influence of Decision, Environmental and Firm Characteristics on the Rationality of Strategic Decision‐Making," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 561-591, June.
    10. Michael A. Hitt & Beverly B. Tyler, 1991. "Strategic decision models: Integrating different perspectives," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(5), pages 327-351, July.
    11. Aseem Prakash, 2001. "Why do firms adopt ‘beyond‐compliance’ environmental policies?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(5), pages 286-299, September.
    12. Frank Figge & Tobias Hahn & Stefan Schaltegger & Marcus Wagner, 2002. "The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard – linking sustainability management to business strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(5), pages 269-284, September.
    13. Magali Delmas & Michael W. Toffel, 2004. "Stakeholders and environmental management practices: an institutional framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 209-222, July.
    14. Neil Harris, 2007. "Corporate engagement in processes for planetary sustainability: understanding corporate capacity in the non‐renewable resource extractive sector, Australia," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(8), pages 538-553, December.
    15. Henry Mintzberg, 1990. "The design school: Reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 171-195, March.
    16. Henry Mintzberg, 1978. "Patterns in Strategy Formation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(9), pages 934-948, May.
    17. Volker H. Hoffmann & Thomas Trautmann & Jens Hamprecht, 2009. "Regulatory Uncertainty: A Reason to Postpone Investments? Not Necessarily," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(7), pages 1227-1253, November.
    18. Ziva Sharp & Nurit Zaidman, 2010. "Strategization of CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 51-71, April.
    19. Rachel Maritz & Marius Pretorius & Kato Plant, 2011. "Exploring the Interface Between Strategy-Making and Responsible Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 101-113, January.
    20. Bernard Burnes, 2004. "Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re‐appraisal," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(6), pages 977-1002, September.
    21. Harish Kumar Jeswani & Walter Wehrmeyer & Yacob Mulugetta, 2008. "How warm is the corporate response to climate change? Evidence from Pakistan and the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 46-60, January.
    22. Banerjee, Subhabrata Bobby, 2002. "Corporate environmentalism: the construct and its measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 177-191, March.
    23. Erik G. Hansen & Martin Sextl & Ralf Reichwald, 2010. "Managing strategic alliances through a community‐enabled balanced scorecard: The case of Merck Ltd, Thailand," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(6), pages 387-399, September.
    24. W. Graham Astley & Runo Axelsson & Richard J. Butler & David J. Hickson & David C. Wilson, 1982. "Complexity And Cleavage: Dual Explanations Of Strategic Decision‐Making [I]," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 357-375, October.
    25. T.K. Das & Bing‐Sheng Teng, 1999. "Cognitive Biases and Strategic Decision Processes: An Integrative Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 757-778, November.
    26. Stefan Schaltegger & Marcus Wagner, 2011. "Sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability innovation: categories and interactions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 222-237, May.
    27. Robert A. Burgelman, 1991. "Intraorganizational Ecology of Strategy Making and Organizational Adaptation: Theory and Field Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(3), pages 239-262, August.
    28. Rupert J. Baumgartner & Daniela Ebner, 2010. "Corporate sustainability strategies: sustainability profiles and maturity levels," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(2), pages 76-89.
    29. John Hendry, 2000. "Strategic Decision Mking, Discourse, And Strategy As Social Practice," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(7), pages 955-978, November.
    30. Tsai, William Ming-Hone & MacMillan, Ian C. & Low, Murray B., 1991. "Effects of strategy and environment on corporate venture success in industrial markets," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 9-28, January.
    31. Robert A. Burgelman, 1983. "Corporate Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management: Insights from a Process Study," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(12), pages 1349-1364, December.
    32. Charles R. Schwenk, 1984. "Cognitive simplification processes in strategic decision‐making," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 111-128, April.
    33. Alain Charles Martinet, 2010. "Strategic planning, strategic management, strategic foresight: the seminal work of H. Igor Ansoff," Post-Print halshs-00939061, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maite Cubas‐Díaz & Miguel Ángel Martínez Sedano, 2018. "Measures for Sustainable Investment Decisions and Business Strategy – A Triple Bottom Line Approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 16-38, January.
    2. Elena-Mădălina Vătămănescu & Patrizia Gazzola & Violeta Mihaela Dincă & Roberta Pezzetti, 2017. "Mapping Entrepreneurs’ Orientation towards Sustainability in Interaction versus Network Marketing Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Laura Corazza & Simone Domenico Scagnelli & Chiara Mio, 2017. "Simulacra and Sustainability Disclosure: Analysis of the Interpretative Models of Creating Shared Value," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(5), pages 414-434, September.
    4. Yi‐Chuan Liao & Kuen‐Hung Tsai, 2019. "Innovation intensity, creativity enhancement, and eco‐innovation strategy: The roles of customer demand and environmental regulation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 316-326, February.
    5. Akrum Helfaya & Tantawy Moussa, 2017. "Do Board's Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Orientation Influence Environmental Sustainability Disclosure? UK Evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1061-1077, December.
    6. Christopher Luederitz & Guido Caniglia & Barry Colbert & Sarah Burch, 2021. "How do small businesses pursue sustainability? The role of collective agency for integrating planned and emergent strategy making," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3376-3393, November.
    7. Patrícia Tourais & Nuno Videira, 2024. "Sustainability transition strategies in a business context: A co‐creation process in the Portuguese hospitality sector," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 600-628, January.
    8. Fabien Martinez & Ken Peattie & Diego Vazquez‐Brust, 2019. "Beyond win–win: A syncretic theory on corporate stakeholder engagement in sustainable development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 896-908, July.
    9. Andrea Lučić, 2020. "Measuring Sustainable Marketing Orientation—Scale Development Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-22, February.
    10. Biswaraj Ghosh & Christian Herzig & Musa Mangena, 2019. "Controlling for sustainability strategies: findings from research and directions for the future," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 5-24, April.
    11. Helena Ranängen & Mathias Cöster & Raine Isaksson & Rickard Garvare, 2018. "From Global Goals and Planetary Boundaries to Public Governance—A Framework for Prioritizing Organizational Sustainability Activities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-26, August.
    12. NNC Pushpamali & Duzgun Agdas & Timothy M. Rose & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2021. "Stakeholder perception of reverse logistics practices on supply chain performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 60-70, January.
    13. Tobias Hahn & Frank Figge, 2018. "Why Architecture Does Not Matter: On the Fallacy of Sustainability Balanced Scorecards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 919-935, July.
    14. Waris Ali & Zeeshan Mahmood & Jeffrey Wilson & Hina Ismail, 2024. "The impact of sustainability governance attributes on comprehensive CSR reporting: A developing country setting," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 1802-1817, May.
    15. Jay Joseph & Helen Borland & Marc Orlitzky & Adam Lindgreen, 2020. "Seeing Versus Doing: How Businesses Manage Tensions in Pursuit of Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 349-370, June.
    16. Sarah Birrell Ivory & R. Bradley MacKay, 2020. "Scaling sustainability from the organizational periphery to the strategic core: Towards a practice‐based framework of what practitioners “do”," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 2058-2077, July.
    17. Philip R. Walsh & Rachel Dodds, 2017. "Measuring the Choice of Environmental Sustainability Strategies in Creating a Competitive Advantage," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 672-687, July.
    18. Anna Katharina Provasnek & Erwin Schmid & Bernhard Geissler & Gerald Steiner, 2017. "Sustainable Corporate Entrepreneurship: Performance and Strategies Toward Innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 521-535, May.
    19. Fotis Kitsios & Maria Kamariotou & Michael A. Talias, 2020. "Corporate Sustainability Strategies and Decision Support Methods: A Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, January.
    20. Sarah Birrell Ivory & Simon Bentley Brooks, 2018. "Managing Corporate Sustainability with a Paradoxical Lens: Lessons from Strategic Agility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 347-361, March.
    21. Mehdi Amini & Carol C. Bienstock & John A. Narcum, 2018. "Status of corporate sustainability: a content analysis of Fortune 500 companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1450-1461, December.
    22. Fabien Martinez & Ken Peattie & Diego Vazquez‐brust & Diego Vazquez-Brust, 2019. "Beyond win–win: A syncretic theory on corporate stakeholder engagement in sustainable development," Post-Print hal-02887685, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jennifer Adolph & Markus Beckmann, 2024. "Corporate sustainability strategy: From definitional ambiguity toward conceptual clarification," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4708-4729, July.
    2. Sanjay Patnaik, 2020. "Emissions permit allocation and strategic firm behavior: Evidence from the oil sector in the European Union emissions trading scheme," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 976-995, March.
    3. Steensen, Elmer Fly, 2014. "Five types of organizational strategy," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 266-281.
    4. Simon Cadez & Albert Czerny & Peter Letmathe, 2019. "Stakeholder pressures and corporate climate change mitigation strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 1-14, January.
    5. Canales, J. Ignacio & Caldart, Adrián, 2017. "Encouraging emergence of cross-business strategic initiatives," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 300-313.
    6. Steve Elliot, 2013. "A Transdisciplinary Exploratory Model of Corporate Responses to the Challenges of Environmental Sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 269-282, May.
    7. Robert P. Garrett Jr. & Jeffrey G. Covin, 2015. "Internal Corporate Venture Operations Independence and Performance: A Knowledge–Based Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 763-790, July.
    8. Da Mota de Pina E Cunha, A.M., 1998. "Determinants of Product Innovation in Organizations : Practices and Performance in the Portugese Financial Sector," Other publications TiSEM e6e4e56e-b72a-4392-8d79-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Satish Kumar & Riya Sureka & Weng Marc Lim & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Nisha Goyal, 2021. "What do we know about business strategy and environmental research? Insights from Business Strategy and the Environment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3454-3469, December.
    10. Kevin Byrne & Donncha Kavanagh, 1996. "Strategic Environmental Management In The Irish Chemical/Pharmaceutical Industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 106-114, June.
    11. J. Ignacio Canales, 2015. "Sources of Selection in Strategy Making," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 1-31, January.
    12. van den Oever, Koen, 2017. "Uncharted waters : A behavioral approach to when, why and which organizational changes are adopted," Other publications TiSEM 0136c8c2-ecdd-4f82-8ca7-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Iván A. Montoya Restrepo, 2009. "La formación de la estrategia en Mintzberg y las posibilidades de su aportación para el futuro," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, December.
    14. Axel v. Werder, 1999. "Argumentation Rationality of Management Decisions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(5), pages 672-690, October.
    15. Suparak Suriyankietkaew & Phallapa Petison, 2019. "A Retrospective and Foresight: Bibliometric Review of International Research on Strategic Management for Sustainability, 1991–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, December.
    16. Albert Czerny & Peter Letmathe, 2017. "Eco‐efficiency: GHG reduction related environmental and economic performance. The case of the companies participating in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 791-806, September.
    17. Erhart, Raphaela & Mahlendorf, Matthias D. & Reimer, Marko & Schäffer, Utz, 2017. "Theorizing and testing bidirectional effects: The relationship between strategy formation and involvement of controllers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 36-52.
    18. Lueg, Rainer & Radlach, Ronny, 2016. "Managing sustainable development with management control systems: A literature review," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 158-171.
    19. Christoph Constantin Niemann & Petra Dickel & Gordon Eckardt, 2020. "The interplay of corporate entrepreneurship, environmental orientation, and performance in clean‐tech firms—A double‐edged sword," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 180-196, January.
    20. Brauer, Matthias & Heitmann, Mark, 2013. "Antecedents and temporal dynamics of strategic divergence in multinational corporations: Evidence from Europe," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 110-121.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:25:y:2016:i:5:p:323-336. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.